Last month I took part of a cooking competition at The Dirty Apron. It was hosted by Blue Dragon –  a new line of Asian Stir-Fri mixes, cooking sauces and pastes. These sauces are perfect for busy cooks, like myself, who love gourmet flavours, but are too busy with life. Some of the recipes take as little as 5 minutes – just add meat and vegetables and you’re done!

Unlike some other products in the market, Blue Dragon uses the highest quality natural and authentic ingredients with little or no additives. The line is also entirely free of MSG and is low sodium. The line comprises a variety of Asian cooking staples like coconut milk, fish sauce, nuoc cham (vietnamese dipping sauce) and sesame oil, as well as ten definitive Stir-Fry pouches, cooking sauces, and curry pastes that are unique to the brand.

There are several cooking sauces that are part of the line: Those include: Chow Mein –  a Chinese style sauce with soy sauce and Chinese five spice, Chinese Curry – a Singaporean inspired mild curry sauce with warming spices, a Tomato and Sweet Chilli Cooking Sauce which is spicy and sweet with tomatoes, onions and red chillies and a Sweet and Sour Cooking Sauce –  a tangy sauce with chunky pineapple, bamboo and water chestnuts. There are also curry pastes that makes easy to recreate Thai curry dishes.

 I found cooking with the sauces very easy. My partner during the competition was @dawn_chubai from Breakfast Television. We had a great time and created this delicious dish:

 We used the tomato and sweet chilli sauce for the prawns, and we steamed our rice using coconut water and grated ginger. We also created a Thai noodle salad with lime, shallots and fresh vegetables. The entire thing, from prep to plate, took less than 20 minutes. Amazing.

In the end, it was Foodist who got top prize for their creation. They won $1000 for their charity of choice.

Check out the Blue Dragon website for more recipes ideas.